pearlagcalo's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars really. I like how it blends the "old" world in the "modern" world and wished the author expanded more on that. (I love Cassandra Clare because of it). The story of Sage and Lily really came together for me, I thought that was very clever how it came about. Really hope the next book comes out soon.
smartflutist661's review against another edition
3.25
So close to being good, yet it didn't quite have the spark. Not enough mystery, perhaps?
kblincoln's review
4.0
Nice start to an Urban Fantasy series featuring 5 Houses of elemental Celtic-lore based fae (whose gods are Brighid, the Morrigan, Cernunnos, Llyr etc.) who live in a world dangerous to humans attended by pixie and vampire-like shade underlings.
Sage is an 18 year old street kids living in Los Angeles (the city landmarks don't quite feature very much into the story enough to lift it beyond "general city" feeling). One night she is invited to a party by her friend, and is more or less kidnapped by one of the powerful demigods-- children born of human and one of the gods-- as it turns out she is also a demigod with powers hidden from herself.
Only the fae community won't leave her alone now that she's coming of age, she must choose a protector and a house to pledge allegiance to, only Sage is haunted by realistic dreams and while she feels safe with the ex-Cernunnos protector Faelan, she is drawn to the Morrigan's Kiernan by deep seated feelings of recognition.
There's quite a vivid backstory to these characters, which I appreciated. The magic is consistent and thought out with there definitely being a "cost" for magic which made sense. The pacing is quite slow in the first half of the book, only really becoming less ploddy when secrets about Sage and Kiernan's pasts are revealed. In this world there is a shadowy, powerful guild they're afraid of and so must follow rules, but this guild really doesn't appear in this book, and the gods seem more powerful in general, so when folks seemed scared of going outside the lines, it didn't ring true to me.
The other problem for me lay within the alternating Sage/Faelan POV. Sage's voice is great, believable as a confused 18 year old, engaging, etc....but so is Faelan's. I mean, Faelan's felt exactly the same to me as Sage, such that in the first two pages of the POV switch I often had to flip back to the chapter heading to see whose POV I was in. Not quite what I would hope for in a centuries old, world weary broken Fae from Cernunnos wild house.
Still, I would follow along to the second book because of the intriguing secrets revealed in the latter half of the book that put a complicated spin on things...and because I do love me a dark prince and Kiernan (although slightly inconsistent between first couple of meetings with Sage and latter meetings) is a wonderfully drawn dark prince.
Sage is an 18 year old street kids living in Los Angeles (the city landmarks don't quite feature very much into the story enough to lift it beyond "general city" feeling). One night she is invited to a party by her friend, and is more or less kidnapped by one of the powerful demigods-- children born of human and one of the gods-- as it turns out she is also a demigod with powers hidden from herself.
Only the fae community won't leave her alone now that she's coming of age, she must choose a protector and a house to pledge allegiance to, only Sage is haunted by realistic dreams and while she feels safe with the ex-Cernunnos protector Faelan, she is drawn to the Morrigan's Kiernan by deep seated feelings of recognition.
There's quite a vivid backstory to these characters, which I appreciated. The magic is consistent and thought out with there definitely being a "cost" for magic which made sense. The pacing is quite slow in the first half of the book, only really becoming less ploddy when secrets about Sage and Kiernan's pasts are revealed. In this world there is a shadowy, powerful guild they're afraid of and so must follow rules, but this guild really doesn't appear in this book, and the gods seem more powerful in general, so when folks seemed scared of going outside the lines, it didn't ring true to me.
The other problem for me lay within the alternating Sage/Faelan POV. Sage's voice is great, believable as a confused 18 year old, engaging, etc....but so is Faelan's. I mean, Faelan's felt exactly the same to me as Sage, such that in the first two pages of the POV switch I often had to flip back to the chapter heading to see whose POV I was in. Not quite what I would hope for in a centuries old, world weary broken Fae from Cernunnos wild house.
Still, I would follow along to the second book because of the intriguing secrets revealed in the latter half of the book that put a complicated spin on things...and because I do love me a dark prince and Kiernan (although slightly inconsistent between first couple of meetings with Sage and latter meetings) is a wonderfully drawn dark prince.
chllybrd's review against another edition
4.0
I gave it 3.5 stars
Although it took me a little bit to get into the story, FIRE AND BONE ended up being entertaining.
I almost gave up on FIRE AND BONE when I first started reading, but decided to keep going. I ended up enjoying the world, the mythology and the characters. Sage had a lot of mystery to her. She doesn't know much about herself and we learn about it along with her. I will admit that a lot of things were confusing until more was explained—which could be frustrating—but I' glad I stuck with it.
I can't say the romance was my favorite part of FIRE AND BONE. It isn't heavy on romance, but the romance that does take place happens to be a triangle. Ugh a triangle. As with most triangles, I like one and don't care for the other.
With slow reveals, interesting characters and a unique storyline, FIRE AND BONE was a great start to a new urban fantasy series.
* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Although it took me a little bit to get into the story, FIRE AND BONE ended up being entertaining.
I almost gave up on FIRE AND BONE when I first started reading, but decided to keep going. I ended up enjoying the world, the mythology and the characters. Sage had a lot of mystery to her. She doesn't know much about herself and we learn about it along with her. I will admit that a lot of things were confusing until more was explained—which could be frustrating—but I' glad I stuck with it.
I can't say the romance was my favorite part of FIRE AND BONE. It isn't heavy on romance, but the romance that does take place happens to be a triangle. Ugh a triangle. As with most triangles, I like one and don't care for the other.
With slow reveals, interesting characters and a unique storyline, FIRE AND BONE was a great start to a new urban fantasy series.
* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
mommasaystoread's review against another edition
2.0
While I have run across Celtic lore in Urban Fantasy, it's not all that common, so that combined with my love of the genre made me eager to read this one. Unfortunately, that eager attitude didn't last long. The story started out well enough and the premise is great, but the execution of that premise was not so great. World building is an important aspect of UF and there is quite a lot of that here, but at times it tends to get bogged down in the details. The author was so overly descriptive that I was tempted to skim more often than not throughout this lengthy tale. Setting aside the fact that many of them are more like vampires than gods or demigods, the characters are a hodge podge of developed and interesting to not so much of either. Speaking of characters, our heroine, and I use that term loosely, is not very likable or interesting. She has an intriguing affinity for fire, but she proves over and over that she isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. She's kidnapped and thrown into a world full of things she doesn't understand, but she just seems to go with the flow and manages to get herself into situations where someone has to come to the rescue. Unfortunately, Sage isn't the only female in this story that with negative traits. The story is geared toward teens and young adults, but in a day when strong female characters are so needed, I would have a hard time recommending this one to any teen. There is some action and even a handful of interesting characters, but in the end, there were just too many negatives to make me want to read more about this world.
missyansell's review against another edition
4.0
I got an ARC of this in return for an honest review.
Sage, who is a young girl of eighteen living in the streets of LA, suddenly finds out that she is in fact not human, but a demigoddess with the power to control fire. Somehow she was masked by this magical society and not found until she was older when most are found much younger. She then must train for her emergence, where she will pick one of the five houses each based off one of the elements: fire (Brighid), water (Lyr), earth (Cernunnos), air (Arwen), and spirit (Morrigan).
I really liked the backstory of Queen Lily. I did find Sage a bit annoying in the beginning always trying to run away. She definitely gets better as the story goes on. I do look forward to the next book whenever it comes out! Also loved the celtic influences!!
Merged review:
I got an ARC of this in return for an honest review.
Sage, who is a young girl of eighteen living in the streets of LA, suddenly finds out that she is in fact not human, but a demigoddess with the power to control fire. Somehow she was masked by this magical society and not found until she was older when most are found much younger. She then must train for her emergence, where she will pick one of the five houses each based off one of the elements: fire (Brighid), water (Lyr), earth (Cernunnos), air (Arwen), and spirit (Morrigan).
I really liked the backstory of Queen Lily. I did find Sage a bit annoying in the beginning always trying to run away. She definitely gets better as the story goes on. I do look forward to the next book whenever it comes out! Also loved the celtic influences!!
Sage, who is a young girl of eighteen living in the streets of LA, suddenly finds out that she is in fact not human, but a demigoddess with the power to control fire. Somehow she was masked by this magical society and not found until she was older when most are found much younger. She then must train for her emergence, where she will pick one of the five houses each based off one of the elements: fire (Brighid), water (Lyr), earth (Cernunnos), air (Arwen), and spirit (Morrigan).
I really liked the backstory of Queen Lily. I did find Sage a bit annoying in the beginning always trying to run away. She definitely gets better as the story goes on. I do look forward to the next book whenever it comes out! Also loved the celtic influences!!
Merged review:
I got an ARC of this in return for an honest review.
Sage, who is a young girl of eighteen living in the streets of LA, suddenly finds out that she is in fact not human, but a demigoddess with the power to control fire. Somehow she was masked by this magical society and not found until she was older when most are found much younger. She then must train for her emergence, where she will pick one of the five houses each based off one of the elements: fire (Brighid), water (Lyr), earth (Cernunnos), air (Arwen), and spirit (Morrigan).
I really liked the backstory of Queen Lily. I did find Sage a bit annoying in the beginning always trying to run away. She definitely gets better as the story goes on. I do look forward to the next book whenever it comes out! Also loved the celtic influences!!
verumsolum's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.75
This was a book with a lot of good in it, but … as a reader, I felt too “in the dark” for too long. I was really interested in how Sage would deal with , but it felt like learning more about that was always sidetracked by
I also was not a fan of the ending: What was left unresolved was more important, to me, than the things that were resolved by the end of the book. (In my mind, a book should be a complete and satisfying story. A series shouldn’t dangle loose ends to be resolved in future books.
Spoiler
her new powersSpoiler
Sage figuring out her feelings for Faelan. (I found that interesting, too, but at times it felt like that storyline crowded out the main one.)I also was not a fan of the ending: What was left unresolved was more important, to me, than the things that were resolved by the end of the book. (In my mind, a book should be a complete and satisfying story. A series shouldn’t dangle loose ends to be resolved in future books.
lucy_rain_and_cupcakes's review against another edition
2.0
I think this series has good promises, but somewhere in the middle of reading this book, I began to lose my interest. It may have something to do with the pace of the book, the lack of word building, and also the story plot itself. At one point I did stop reading, and wasn’t sure I want to finish it.
When I started this book I was excited to learn about the world of Fire and Bone and the connection with the Celtic gods and goddesses. As I’ve been reading mostly high fantasy books, I was ready for something more modern. But while I was reading, I did not find what I was looking for. For the most part I thought the world building was unorganized, and very often I felt disconnected with the story and wondered what was going on. The story did start out decent, and I was curious about the dreams that Sage was having. But as the dream began to unfold, I found myself becoming less and less invested in the story. In the end, I didn’t care for the story plot nor the characters.
Throughout the book, I have struggled to make connections with each of the characters. I thought Sage was just an okay character, she didn’t leave me with a strong an impression. I wanted to learn more about her potential, but was introduced with her creepy stalker and strange dreams. With Faelan, I wanted to learn more about his background, but the book was focused mostly on his inner struggles with Sage, which left me mostly annoyed with his POVs. I actually did liked Kieran’s character, but have wished the story didn’t portray him the way it did.
I didn’t like the romance connections, from early on I immediately knew who was the potential love interests, and I was not too impressed. To me it was too early and there was a lack of connections, which made it hard to believe.
Overall, I liked the concept and the promises of this book, but it did take me a while to finish this book. By the time I finished this book, I was somewhat disappointed with the story, which didn’t quite delivered the way I have wanted.
karinajean's review against another edition
3.0
This book was fine, but I don't have a lot of patience right now for this particular kind of cliff-hanger / series. If you liked "A Court of Thorns and Roses" by Sarah Maas but are interested in something set in the modern world, you'll probably like this.